Sleepy Sun

Sleepy Sun
Sleepy Sun in 2013
Background information
Origin	Santa Cruz, California, United States
Genres	Psychedelic rock
Years active	2005-2007 (as Mania) 2007-present (as Sleepy Sun)
Labels	Dine Alone Records ATP Recordings
Associated acts	Fine Points
Website	sleepysun.co
Members	Bret Constantino Matt Holliman Evan Reiss Brian Tice
Past members	Rachel Fannan Jack Allen Hubert Guy

Sleepy Sun is an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Santa Cruz, California and now based in San Francisco. The band is composed of vocalist Bret Constantino, guitarists Matt Holliman and Evan Reiss, and drummer Brian Tice.

The band have released four studio albums to date, and are set to release their fifth Private Tales in June 2017.

Sleepy Sun formed as Mania in 2005 at UC Santa Cruz by students Bret Constantino, Matt Holliman, Evan Reiss, Brice Tice and original bass player Hubert Guy. Holliman, Reiss and Tice all lived on the same floor during their freshman year. The band progressed from their original garage rock stylings into psychedelia, and changed their name to Sleepy Sun in 2007, with the addition of former Birds Fled from Me singer Rachel Fannan. The band set to work on their debut Embrace in 2008 which they self released via their own record label/publishing company Sol Diamond, and received favorable reviews. Shortly after the release of the album, Guy left the band and was replaced by new bass player Jack Allen. The album was re-issued by ATP Recordings on June 16, 2009. The band toured heavily throughout 2009 in support of the album, with their live show becoming a subject of acclaim. In March 2010, they embarked on a tour of the United States, opening for the English rock band Arctic Monkeys. They were personally asked to support Arctic Monkeys, after the girlfriend of the band's bassist heard a song on a covermount CD and got the band to listen to it.

The band released their second album, Fever on June 1, 2010. The album was recorded in Vancouver, Canada in April 2009 with producer Colin Stewart who also worked on the band's debut album. Holliman commented that "Fever and Embrace were written back to back. After recording Embrace we moved to San Francisco and started writing the tracks that would eventually arrive on Fever. This writing took place before Embrace was officially released by ATP and before we started touring full time. So if there's a feeling of continuity between the two, it's simply because there was little to no time between their inception". Fannan departed the band mid tour, following an alleged incident on September 8th 2010 at the Black Cat venue in Washington, D.C.. In late October, she released a press release in which she cited a lack of input into the band's creative process and conflicts with other band members as the reasons for her departure. She stated that "I had a fun time with them for the first year but after several attempts to contribute my ability to play keys, or write music were ignored I gave up hope and started drinking more. There’s a whole year and a half of my life I barely remember. I’m ashamed I let my depression over losing my outlet of self-expression get the better of me". The band initially declined to comment on her departure, but Constantino later stated that "She's a really beautiful person in a lot of ways. I learned a lot about myself, maybe more so by having to deal with people that sort of have manic tendencies. Because you can't change people". Fannan returned to working as a solo artist and released a solo album Deeper Lurking. In 2011, Sleepy Sun went on tour with The Black Angels.